


Taking It Back

by Rochelle_Templer



Category: The Monkees, The Monkees (TV)
Genre: Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-12
Updated: 2017-09-15
Packaged: 2018-12-26 21:22:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12067224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rochelle_Templer/pseuds/Rochelle_Templer
Summary: Words said in the heat of the moment lead to much longer stretches of regret...





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is sort of an episode tag to "The Case of the Missing Monkee".

Mike wasn’t even sure why he had said anything in the first place. Now that he had though, he wished he could take it back.

The day had started on a positive note. Early that morning, they had gotten a call from the Vincent Van Gogh Gogh that the Foreign Agents had cancelled and had offer them a chance to fill in. It was an unexpected paycheck that had come right when they needed to get some things like food, guitar strings and even a drumhead for Micky’s snare drum. Thus, Mike was eager to head over to the club as soon as possible to rehearse.

The problem was, Micky had already left for the day and had said that he wouldn’t be back until three in the afternoon. That still gave them plenty of time to get to the club, get set up, and maybe do a couple of run-throughs before the show, but Mike didn’t like to cut things close. He wanted extra time in case something happened like bad traffic on the way to the club or the instruments needing extra tuning. Thus, he was on edge the entire time as the clock ticked toward three.

However, three ‘o clock came and went with no sign of the drummer. Mike grilled Peter and Davy about where Micky could be, but neither of them knew anything other than that he was going somewhere downtown. Mike paced even faster around the pad, trying to figure out if he should get in the Monkeemoble and look for him or stick around in case he showed up soon.

It wasn’t until a quarter after three that Micky finally showed up.

“Hey guys,” the drummer said with a friendly wave and his usual grin. “What’s….?”

“Where have you been?” Mike said. “You said you’d be back by three.” Micky blinked a couple times while his smile faded.

“I thought I would be,” Micky shrugged. “But I ran into this guy who wanted to….”

“Yeah, I get it. You got distracted,” Mike interrupted. “That’s how it always is with you. We got a call for a gig tonight and we might not have made it with you gettin’ distracted.”

“We got a gig?” Micky said. “Groovy. I’ll go grab my drums and we can go.”

“Now hang on a minute,” Mike said. “What about you bein’ late? We could have missed out on that gig and then they wouldn’t have wanted to hire us again.”

“Well sure, I get that,” Micky shrugged. “But I’m here now, so it’s no big deal, right?”

“It is a big deal when you bein’ late almost costs us jobs,” Mike insisted. “You told us you’d be here by three and you weren’t. You weren’t thinkin’ about us waitin’.”

“Oh right, because I knew that we had a gig to do tonight and that I needed to get back here in time,” Micky said, narrowing his eyes. “Oh wait, no I didn’t because no one told me and I can’t read minds.” The drummer ground his jaw and took a large step toward Mike.

“So instead of just being one of those things where it’s nobody’s fault, it’s about me being late for something I didn’t even know about,” he continued. “I guess that’s just me being too ‘crafty and selfish’ again to care about getting work or anyone else.”

Mike swallowed hard. He remembered saying that about Micky recently while they were trying to save that professor from being smuggled out of the country against his will. He had meant it as a joke, but it was clear now that it hadn’t been taken that way.

“Mick…I….”

“Skip it,” Micky said, turning abruptly on his heel. “Let’s just get going so we can make that gig.”

The drummer stormed over to his drum set and began to pack it into its cases. Mike sighed and went over to get his things as well with Davy and Peter following his silent lead. He was certain that the four of them would be able to get through the show tonight without any issues. All of them had had plenty of experience with putting personal problems aside for work.

The Texan wasn’t so sure, however; about how well his friendship with Micky would weather this argument.


	2. Chapter 2

The next day, Micky sat alone on the beach, staring at the ocean.

The gig had gone well, and by the end of the night, he was clowning around with Davy and Peter again like normal. Overall, the tension had not lasted longer than the rehearsals before the show.

The one exception to this was the tension he still had with Mike.

Micky frowned and rested his head on his arms which were folded over his knees. He and Mike hardly ever argued. And even when they did, it usually blew over within minutes. Truthfully, he hadn’t really wanted to argue with Mike in the first place.

But something about Mike’s tone brought him back to those words the Texan had said about him recently.

Micky knew that Mike wasn’t really wrong about him. He supposed that he could take it as a compliment that Mike thought he was clever enough to weasel his way out of almost anything. He was pretty sure that wasn’t how people would usually take being called ‘crafty’, but Micky was more than willing to see it in a positive light if it came from Mike.

However, he couldn’t do that when it was coupled with being called ‘selfish’. The drummer could see how he could be called that too. Even if he didn’t like it. He did have a tendency to run off at the mouth and make jokes before thinking about how they would be taken. That was probably a pretty selfish thing to do.

“Mick….”

Micky sighed and pushed his face against his forearms. He didn’t need to turn around to see who was standing behind him. Instead he remained quiet while Mike walked over to where he was and sat down beside him. The Texan was silent for a minute before finally clearing his throat.

“Mick, I…I’m sorry,” Mike said quietly. “I, um, I didn’t mean….”

“Don’t worry about it,” Micky huffed as he raised his head. “It’s not that important. Not enough to drag it up again.”

“I, no, man, it is important,” Mike insisted. “It is.”

Micky nodded and kept watching the ocean. He didn’t really want to get into this conversation, but couldn’t think of a good way to stop it. Suddenly, he felt Mike grab his forearm, causing him to finally face the Texan.

“I shouldn’t have said what I did,” Mike drawled. “Because I didn’t mean what I said. I mean, I meant it, but not the way I said it.”

Mike coughed and fidgeted where he was as he gathered his words. Micky still didn’t smile, but he didn’t turn away either.

“I know you’re real smart,” Mike continued. “You’re one of the smartest people I know. You can figure all sorts of things out. And that’s great, you dig? I’m not sayin’ it’s bad. It’s why you can come up with stuff to help get us out of all those crazy situations we keep gettin’ in. And…you, uh, I don’…you’re not selfish either. Not really. Yeah, you run off sometimes when you get scared and stuff and you complain about it, but uh, you always stick with us when we need you.”

Mike turned his gaze toward the shoreline while bowing his head slightly.

“And you don’ get on people for stuff,” the Texan mumbled. “Like not bein’ that great of a friend and all.”

Micky frowned again. He never did like it when Mike disparaged himself that way and that included right now. Still, he understood where it was coming from and it was impossible to stay upset at him while knowing that.

“Mike,” he said softly. “It’s ok. What you said….you said you didn’t want me to think you meant what you said before. Well I don’t think you meant it. Not anymore. But…I don’t want you to mean what you just said either.”

Mike looked over at him with a flash of confusion in his eyes. It only took the Texan a moment to catch onto what Micky was saying though, and soon a hint of a smile returned to his lips.

“Yeah,” Mike said. “Yeah, all right.” Micky grinned at him and patted his shoulder.

“Great, then let’s go get something to eat,” he said. “I’m hungry. And heard there’s a new hot dog stand nearby.”

“Yeah, I heard about it too,” Mike said. “But I don’ know. I heard somethin’ about putting avocadoes on hot dogs.”

“Pssh, that’s probably just to get the locals to check him out,” Micky said with a wave of his hand. “You know the scene around here. I’m sure they’ve got stuff we can eat besides that. Maybe we can even get some chili on them.”

“You ain’t goin’ to find real chili around here,” Mike smirked at him. “That’s a fact.”

“We’ll see,” Micky giggled. “Come on.”

The two of them got to their feet and took off down the beach. At that moment, Micky was glad that they actually had money for a change because he was sure that he was going to dare Mike to try one of those avocado hot dogs before the day was through.


End file.
